Six Foot Track and after

21. Nov 2008

Haven’t written for quite some time again, but it’s not because I haven’t had anything to talk about, but because I have been busy and been away from all civilization :P.

I’d better start where I left off. That night we didn’t do anything basically, just went to sleep to be ready for our journey. But in the morning we did last preparations to get ourselves ready, packing and having a good breakfast. Also it turned out that Megan doesn’t have a tent, but that didn’t stop us, we decided to do it anyways and see how it goes. After that we headed up to the flats to see Sam, so he could take us to Katoomba. It was like 60 km to Katoomba and the length of our hike was going to be 45 km.

We needed to do some things in Katoomba too and buy stuff. First place where we headed was the bank, I made myself internet bank and checked how much money I earned. Got like 1500 something dollars for 3 weeks, but for me it seemed too little for all those hours I had worked and decided to talk to Matthew, the accountant, when I get back to Jenolan. And that was quite shocking that Kaupo didn’t get paid, so we needed to check that also after our journey. Next thing was to find a place to buy some food, find a market. While heading down the road Kaupo saw somekind of hiking store and we decided to go in and check. From there we found ourselves a tent and just for like 89 dollars. So we had a tent now, but still needed to buy some extra food, after a little search we found Coles, so got few things from there (food and new socks :P). We also couldn’t leave without booze, so we headed to the liquor store to buy some. Everything was alright till they asked ID-s from us. Me and Kaupo had one, but Chris didn’t and the guy said that he can’t sell us, because he needs ID from everyone. Stupid Australian laws/rules. Anyways we decided to find other one then. We dropped our stuff in the car and then Sam remembered he had to buy credit for Jo’s phone, so we headed to K-mart. In front of K-mart one girl came to us, holding one bottle with some kind of dirty water and her first question was if we would drink that water. We all answered yes :D. She “corrected” us that we wouldn’t and that kind of is the water in Africa that kids have to drink. Turned out that she was Finnish. She was trying to get people to support African kids by donating money through her organization to help them with clean drinking water. I think she liked Kaupo, but maybe it was because Kaupo was kind of only one that was listening to her :P. Anyways we said not today and went to the store to get the credit. In the store while we were waiting in the queue Chris and Sam almost got into a fight, I mean with each other. They don’t like each other much I think. After the K-mart we got into a car and tried to find another liquor store, to buy some beer for our hike and we decided to buy one carton of beer for Sam also for taking us everywhere. Had some trouble finding a way to get to the liquor store, but finally took the exit to get in :P. Got our beers and started driving to the place that our hike started. Car was packed, totally.

Got to the Explorers tree, where we got off and it all started. We had to unpack our bags and after that repack them, so the weight of our bags would be kind of even. But Kaupo took the most of the water and beers, so actually it wasn’t that even. We got all the stuff fitted in our bags somehow, tho we left like 4 beers out, that we had to drink in the beginning. Said goodbyes to Sam and got our beers and headed out.

After like 5 minutes of walking we got to one lookout and had our first break :P. Took some pictures and headed out. From there our way leaded down for quite long and the road was actually quite small and crappy, but we did alright. After that our road was quite flat or still going down with some small rises. We saw some horses on our way through forest behind fences, got to pet one of them and continued our journey. Bigger stop we had at Megalong cemetery which was like after 8 km. Ate some candy’s for energy and a pear before moving on.

Some of our road went through farmland so there basically were horses and cows on fields that we were walking through. At that time we met our worst enemy on these roads – flies. They were like all over us, using us as landing platforms and being really annoying. Kaupo and Chris both managed to swallow one too :P. That was something that I have never seen, in Estonia the flies are annoying too, but there’s not as many as here and not so, well, you gotta see it for yourself to know. I made video of our entire trip too, so if I have time I’ll work with the videos to make one good one.

Around 6 pm I think we reached the Cox river, walked just next to it, till we found really beautiful place, where we decided to stay for a night. So we had a beer, set up our tents, made a fire and made some food. It was quite fun actually. After chilling there, eating and finishing some more beers we headed to bed/tents/sleeping bags :P. There we looked at the time and turned out that it wasn’t even 11 pm, so we decided that we will get up atleast at 8.30. Wasn’t really comfortable and it was little hard to fall a sleep and sleep in general too, but I guess it need getting used to. But about next day tomorrow, because I’m getting tired.

Continues…

24. Nov 2008

Haven’t had time to write again, because like last night I was working till 3 am, which was quite crazy, because I had to be the dish bitch for 9 hours straight.
Anyways I promised to continue the Six Foot Track story. At night I didn’t sleep so well, because I woke couple of times up because of the animals. I think I heard wild pigs going past our tent and later on cows, quite funny. I woke up like 7:30 and was first one up. When I started to go out Kaupo actually woke up too. I went to light the fire again and by the time I got it started Kaupo got up too and started thinking about food. Chris woke up too, probably because of we were talking quite loud I think. Anyways Kaupo and Chris were both real hungry, so they started to get something to eat. Kaupo decided to make oats and Chris started off with eating cereals with ultra heated milk. While they were busy with that I decided to have a morning swim and wash myself. Because the river was on rocks there were a place where the water was actually quite deep, because of the space between rocks. Water was surprisingly warm, but at the same time refreshing. After that Chris decided to do the same and after him Kaupo got rid of his stench. And during that I filled my stomach with oats and some cereals.

After everyone was washed and eaten we started packing down our camp and started moving on. After like 5 minutes of walking we got to one bridge that we wanted to see. We thought that it was the main road which way to go, but actually sign said that it is alternative way to cross river when river is high. We didn’t care and decided to cross the bridge. Was quite fun to cross it, little unstable seemed to be, but actually real safe. After the bridge we got to one place where we didn’t know where to go, one was going up the mountain and other was following the river. Also there was advertisement that said that rental lodges, which cost like 25 dollars per person. We followed the river and saw only persons on all the Six Foot Track and they were also far away from us, in some kind of house that we saw, probably the lodge they were renting out. We got to the real Cox River camping site, threw our trash there and filled our bottles with fresh water too. We were thinking for a while if we should take them all or leave some behind. Anyways we took them all and headed out again. That was the part when all the road was going up the mountains. It was quite hard and it even wasn’t the steepest part. After we got up, the view was actually beautiful. We moved on, saw some cows and horses on our way. Soon we reached to the steepest part. It was real hard. Tho Kaupo was quite alright with doing all that, but he is a runner too.

Well after that we were mostly concentrating on walking, having some breaks from time to time, mostly because on my request. That left kind of strange feeling and later they started to ask if I was alright. Of course I was alright, but at times I was damn tired and sometimes I just wanted to take some time to look around. That’s where I felt like I was slowing them down. I would have been alright if Kaupo have had gone in front, but Chris didn’t like that thing. Anyways we continued walking, nothing really impressive till we got to the last camping place, where we wanted to camp. It was full of wallabies, like heaps of them. First thing we did was beer out and started to make something to eat. After our biggest need was fulfilled, then we started thinking if we should walk straight back to Jenolan, actually I all was theirs decision, I was fine with everything. Because it actually started to rain a bit during our walk to this camp, it might not have been so fun to camp there. So we decided to eat as much as we can, then get rid of as much as we can and then start walking again. That we did, we made some chilli thing, then pancakes and other stuff. After eating we re-packed all our stuff and started walking again.

Too tired, falling asleep in front of comp… cya…


25. Nov 2008

Alright here I am again. Now I have time to write more I think, because it’s quite early, didn’t have many people in the restaurant today, so got off earlier, tho I’m little tired still, but it’s because we went in the pub last night. Anyways I’ll finish the Six Foot Track story now and hopefully I can add it all to my blog today.

Like I said that we decided to get back to Jenolan, because it was cold, rainy and Chris wanted to sleep in his bed. So after we packed our stuff we started walking again. Soon it got dark and it didn’t take long till we didn’t see anything, so we had to take out our flashlights and using them to find our way home. I was quite surprised that we only got lost once, but that was all Chris’s fault :P. The road was much more longer than I thought and the end the road was going down for long time and I think that was hardest part. At that time I wished that we went up :P. We reached Jenolan around 10 or 11 pm and it was so dark that you couldn’t see even your own hand, kind of like in caves if you turn off all lights.

General thoughts about all the Six Foot Track. We shouln’t have hurried that much and the walk in the dark sucked. But that’s my thought. Another thing was that Chris was panicking when Kaupo went faster than us and I went slower than them sometimes, we would of rather done it in ourselves pace. But at least we got better video because of that I think. Everything has it’s pros and cons.

Maybe I hurried in the end and missed few things and probably forgot few things, but it’s better that way, it’s shorter and I guess those things weren’t important.

After that we have been working and nothing much has happened. Besides drinking of course. Next day after reaching Jenolan we had a big party in the flats, because Tara had a birthday. She is a cool and quite beautiful girl, but don’t know, guess she is not my type :P, haven’t talked to her as much as Kaupo has, but we have done some fun things all together and she’s fun to hang out with. So is her brother Jaye, I think he is one of the coolest persons from the kitchen. Yesterday we went in the pub too, which was quite far away from Jenolan, but Sam drove us there and back (yeh he had been drinking, but he was taking it easy when coming back). That’s the second time, when we have gone outside of Jenolan while working. Funny. Work slaves, but we need it, to make our driving licence and buy bikes. Oh, surfing board too :P. That’s main things I want to do. Maybe some clothing stuff too, but that’s not so important. My sister says that I should talk about my own thoughts more, but at the moment I think I don’t have any thoughts to share. Maybe it is because working is making me kind of like a robot and don’t have time to think my own thoughts. Well one thing that I thought today was that maybe I want to go to Thailand too for a month or so.

I’ll tell little about our plans. Hmm, nothing actually :P. When we get time off from work for a week or two soon, we wanna do the licences and after that maybe get a tent and just live somewhere in the beach and just chill. In Jenolan we don’t know how long we are. Everyone is leaving around Christmas, but maybe we will leave after New Year, if we get enough work and we, actually I thought that make an offer to James, that we could stay here till sometime after New Year if he pays us more. But we will see about that :P. We are also thinking about doing the Six Foot Track again. Because Jo, Rosie, Megan and Agathe want to do it too and we thought that it would be quite funny to see how the girls will handle it :P. They want to do it in 2 days too. We think that they are going to die :P. But around that time there is one cave tour that would be cool to do, it’s called Mammoth tour, kind of like adventure tour, but for like 6 hours. It would be cool thing to do.

That’s it for now. If I think of new things I’ll add. Or if I do something cool that I could share. I’m gonna try to work on the videos and put them up in the internet too somewhere. Don’t know if I can do it today tho. But so long…